BRUFORD: ONE OF A KIND

After trying for several years to find his "best musical identity" in his musical career after the split of KING CRIMSON in late 1974, BILL BRUFORD, by the late seventies at last found it (in my opinion), leading his BRUFORD band to record this all instrumental (without vocals) very good Jazz-Rock / Fusion album in 1979. In fact, it was his second "solo" album, with "Feels Good to Me" (which was recorded in 1977 but was released in January 1978) being his first real solo album. But, with the "One of a Kind" album being really an album recorded under the BRUFORD band's name, with more songwriting collaborations from Dave Stewart, Jeff Berlin and Allan Holdsworth, all of which also contributed to the "Feels Good to Me", album but with that album really being released under BILL BRUFORD's name than as an album recorded as a band.

Why I said before that BILL BRUFORD found his "real musical identity" with this album (and also with "Feels Good To Me")? He said in interviews that while he previously played with a lot of Prog Rock bands, he really was a Jazz drummer playing Rock music. This somewhat "strange mixture" of musical styles for him as a drummer really worked very well while he worked with these bands, with him contributing very good drums playing with very good technique. But for the "Feels Good to Me" and "One of a Kind" albums, he really was composing, playing and recording very good Jazz-Rock / Fusion music by the late seventies. It really was a long "journey" for him to really play the kind of music that he most liked, I think, since he started to be a professional musician in 1968.

While he was playing with the band "U.K. " (with Holdsworth, Eddie Jobson and John Wetton) , he played two of his songs on tour with that band, both of which he later recorded with the BRUFORD band for the "One of a Kind" album: "Forever Until Sunday" and "The Sahara of Snow (Parts 1 and 2)". He said in one interview that Jobson and Wetton didn't want to record those songs for the then planned second "U.K". album with Bruford and Holdsworth (which in the end was titled "Danger Money" and was recorded with Terry Bozzio replacing Bruford but without Holdsworth being replaced). Some live recordings of their 1978 tour show the band playing both songs, and those recordings show the conflicts that the band had, with Holdsworth and Bruford wanting to play Jazz Rock / Fusion music, while Jobson and Wetton wanted to play Prog Rock music (and in the case of Wetton, also Pop Rock music). So, both Bruford and Holdsworht left "U.K." (or were "fired", as Bruford said) in late 1978 to form the BRUFORD band. Anyway, for the recording of "Forever Until Sunday which was included in the "One of a Kind" album, Bruford invited Jobson (then uncredited in the record sleeve to avoid "confusion", as Jobson said in one interview) to play the violin part. But Jobson also was credited as songwriter with Bruford in the part 2 of "Sahara of Snow", but Jobson didn't appear playing in that song. Anyway, "Forever Until Sunday" and "The Sahara of Snow" were recorded for this album with almost the same arrangements that "U.K." played in their 1978 tour.

This "One of a Kind" album, in my opinion, has some more complicated music than the "Feels Good to Me"album, showing that BILL BRUFORD really improved as a composer since then ("with a litle help from his friends" in some songs). But BILL BRUFORD was the main composer and leader in this band. But he let his friends record some of their songs: "Hell's Bells" is a song composed by Stewart (with Alan Gowen); "The Abingdom Chasp" was composed by Holdsworth alone. Some of the other songs have songwriting contributions from the other members of the band: "One of a Kind Part 2" was composed by Bruford with Stewart; "Five G" was composed by Bruford with Berlin and Stewart. But the rest of the songs were composed by Bill Bruford alone.

This album has a very good recording and mixing, with all the members of the band playing very well. Jeff Berlin really shines as bass player in this album.

This is a very good Jazz-Rock / Fusion album. Maybe it sounds "very late seventies" in musical style, but it is very good anyway.